Shrewsbury Students Compete in Destination Imagination

From Shrewsbury Public Schools:

Destination Imagination is a worldwide competition where students can solve problems of their choosing in creative ways. The solutions to the projects are often the creation of skits or creative contraptions. Shrewbury Public Schools (SPS) had 14 individual teams from elementary through high school level. Five of those teams placed, three moving on to the state-level competition. One team received a Divinci Award for outstanding creativity. Two teams received a Renaissance Award for outstanding design, engineering, execution and performance.

In third place for improvisation at middle school level were James DiPilato, Jasper Bushey, Pranav Cowlagi, Thomas Shimer and Zachary Bardash with comanagers Alan Bushey and Ashish Cowlagi. In second place for structural at middle school level were Edward Jiao, Flora Pu, Julia Bardash, Katrina Truong, Sanjana Yadav and Shreya Gattu with managers (high school students) Aastha Gupta and Srujana Tammisetti. In second place for structural at elementary school level for the Renaissance Award were Anastasia Terova, Anika Karre, Cassidy Astorino, Pranidhi Vidyaprakash, Varsha Swaminathan, Yerin Kim and Anusha Patil with managers Vidya Sambasivan and Arjola Terova.

In first place for service challenge at middle school level were Sneha Ramesh, Saanvi Sood, Aabia Hasan, Anusha Chatterjee and Shalini Ambady with managers Amber Khan and Urmi Chatterjee. In first place for structural at elementary school level were Shivani Gupta, Shifali Maheshguru, Aashi Gupta, Laasya Gattu and Medha Rakesh with managers Anil Gupta, Mukesh Gupta and Vandana Gupta. In first place for technical challenge at middle school level for the Renaissance Award were Akil Thiyagarajan, Ashwin Sukthankar, Suraj Swamy, Marzuq Iqbal, Shohei Oyama, Ajay B Alamuri and Toyesh K. Jayaswal with managers Sabreena Kolchikambla and Ankita Jayaswal.

Recipients of the Rising Stars Level Davinci Award were Aarush Vishwa Arun, Alexander Ng and Diya Anwin with manager Dan Ng.

Winners will compete with other teams in their specific chosen event, one of seven open-ended challenges that require students to apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in addition to their talents in improvisation, theater arts, writing, project management, communication, innovation, teamwork, community service and social entrepreneurship.

Destination Imagination has had a positive impact on more than 1.5 students who have taken part in its acclaimed Challenge program. This year, 150,000 students have participated in tournaments throughout the U.S. and 30 countries in hopes of earning a spot at the Global Finals competition in May.

These two teams are among more than 8,000 students representing more than 1,400 teams that will advance to Global Finals, which will be held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville from May 25-28.

“The Destination Imagination program is a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage and curiosity,” said Chuck Cadle, CEO of Destination Imagination. “Quantitative reasoning, collaborative problem solving, risk taking, collaboration, presentations and thinking on your feet are some of the important skills learned in the program.”

Destination Imagination is a leader in project-based learning opportunities that blend STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education with the arts and social entrepreneurship. Its academic challenges are designed to teach kids how to think, not what to think, and then present their solutions at regional and state tournaments.

Each year, DI competitions begin with a regional tournament, where team solutions are assessed by a panel of trained appraisers, ranging from educators to artists to engineers. Each team solution is scored on a variety of elements, including originality, workmanship, presentation and teamwork. Teams with the highest scores advance to the Affiliate (state or country) tournaments. The top-tiered teams from the affiliate tournaments advance to Global Finals.

Destination Imagination, Inc. dedicates itself to enriching the global community by providing opportunities for learners of all ages to explore and discover using the creative process from imagination to innovation.

Further information is available through the Global Finals website.